Florida Senate - 2015                                    SB 1358
       
       
        
       By Senator Abruzzo
       
       
       
       
       
       25-00318-15                                           20151358__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to spouses of military servicemembers;
    3         creating s. 115.135, F.S.; defining terms; prohibiting
    4         an employing agency from compelling an employee who is
    5         the spouse of a military servicemember to work, or
    6         imposing a sanction or penalty upon such employee for
    7         failure or refusal to work, extended hours during
    8         active military service deployment of his or her
    9         spouse under specified circumstances; requiring an
   10         employing agency to grant a request from such employee
   11         for unpaid leave for certain purposes upon the active
   12         military service deployment under specified
   13         circumstances; providing a limitation on such unpaid
   14         leave; clarifying that such unpaid leave is concurrent
   15         with qualifying exigency leave granted by an employing
   16         agency; authorizing the Department of Management
   17         Services to adopt rules to administer this section;
   18         providing an effective date.
   19          
   20  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   21  
   22         Section 1. Section 115.135, Florida Statutes, is created to
   23  read:
   24         115.135 Leave considerations for spouses of military
   25  servicemembers in active military service.—
   26         (1) As used in this section, the term:
   27         (a) “Active military service” shall signify active duty
   28  with any branch of the Armed Forces or Reservists of the Armed
   29  Forces, the Florida National Guard, the Coast Guard of the
   30  United States, and service of all officers of the United States
   31  Public Health Service detailed by proper authority for duty with
   32  the Armed Forces, and shall include the period during which a
   33  person in military service is absent from duty on account of
   34  sickness, wounds, leave, or other lawful cause.
   35         (b) “Employing agency” has the same meaning as provided in
   36  s. 110.107(24).
   37         (2) An employing agency may not compel an employee who is
   38  the spouse of a servicemember of the United States Armed Forces
   39  to work, or sanction or penalize such an employee for failure or
   40  refusal to work, hours in excess of the scheduled hours in the
   41  employee’s established work period during a period in which his
   42  or her spouse is deployed on active military service at a
   43  location other than the servicemember’s permanent duty station.
   44         (3) An employing agency shall grant, if requested, an
   45  unpaid leave of up to 4 working days per deployment to an
   46  employee whose spouse is a servicemember of the United States
   47  Armed Forces deployed on active military service at a location
   48  other than the servicemember’s permanent duty station for the
   49  purpose of attending to matters directly related to the
   50  implementation of deployment orders of the employee’s spouse.
   51  Unpaid leave taken under this subsection runs concurrently with
   52  any qualifying exigency leave granted by the employing agency
   53  under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, as amended, 29
   54  U.S.C. ss. 2601 et seq.
   55         (4) The Department of Management Services may adopt rules
   56  to administer this section.
   57         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2015.